PriFest – Prishtina International Film Festival, also known simply as PriFest (8-13 September), has closed its 18th edition by crowning Visar Morina’s Shame and Money as its winner. The movie follows a family who must move from Kosovo’s countryside to the capital after their livelihood is taken away, forcing them into a painful process of assimilation into harsh capitalist practices and emotionally degrading actions to survive.

The jury lauded the film’s ability to “transform issues of pride, compromise and everyday survival into something powerfully emotional”. The prize, known as the Vjosa Berisha Award for Best Film, after the festival’s late co-founder, became Morina’s first trophy for the work in Kosovo. The feature, which is the German-based Kosovar filmmaker’s third effort, scooped the top prize in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition earlier this year and has also thus pre-qualified for the Oscars.

The main actor in Shame and Money, Astrit Kabashi, won the Best Actor Award at PriFest for his role as Shaban, the hard-working patriarch of the family. Sheqerie Buqaj, meanwhile, won Best Actress for her leading role in Ujkan Hysaj’s Hana. The film tells of an actress who is brought on to an art therapy programme to assist women dealing with trauma from the war, only to uncover her own hidden wounds. Buqaj dedicated the award to survivors of sexual violence during the war in Kosovo.

Belkis Bayrak won the Best Director Award for Gülizar, her debut film, which played at both Toronto and San Sebastián in 2024. Bayrak’s work follows the titular woman whose pre-wedding period is violently disrupted when she is sexually assaulted. This leads her into a crisis: she wishes to forget and move on, while her husband is desperate to seek revenge on her behalf.

In the other film categories, Baran Nikrah’s Iranian short These Voices Are Real took home the Award for Best Short Film, while Best Medium-length Film went to Siham Bel’s French flick Les Nocturnes. Bel’s 26-minute movie world-premiered in 2025 at Clermont-Ferrand and tells of a mother looking to take her sons on a skiing holiday as a present.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Vjosa Berisha Award for Best Film
Shame and Money – Visar Morina (Germany/Kosova/Slovenia/Albania/North Macedonia/Belgium)

Best Director
Belkis Bayrak – Gülizar (Kosovo/Turkey)

Best Actress
Sheqerie Buqaj – Hana (Kosovo)

Best Actor
Astrit Kabashi – Shame and Money

Best Short Film
These Voices Are Real – Baran Nikrah (Iran)

Best Medium-length Film
Les Nocturnes – Siham Bel (France)

Festival Award of Appreciation
In Pigeon’s Blood – Chaya Moshayev, Hod Adler (Israel/Uzbekistan)

Lifetime Achievement Award
Cheryl Johnson